Irene Heinz Given Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases

Research

Tuberculosis is the leading infectious killer of adults worldwide. As HIV predisposes to tuberculosis, the number of deaths has been rising rapidly in many parts of the world. Despite over a century of research on the causative organism, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, we still have a very poor understanding of tuberculous infections. We have developed new tools for studying M. tuberculosis and related mycobacteria in an effort to identify genes required for growth, survival and virulence in mycobacteria We are taking advantage of the recent sequencing of the M. tuberculosis genome to systematically analyze genes to determine their importance in disease using transposon mutagenesis and DNA microarrays. We hope to use these genes to develop new methods to produce attenuated strains of M. tuberculosis both for use as vaccines and as screening strains for new antibiotics.

Education

M.D., 1990, Tufts University School of Medicine
Ph.D., 1990, Sackler School of Biomedical Sciences, Tufts University